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by ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 02:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20202058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: Emma smiles on her way through the portal and Regina just nods her wordless goodbye. That very night Emma comes back, because she just can't leave her, even though she swore she could.  Asked by waknatious via tumblr





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**Author's Note:**

> A/N I’m not going to focus on the series’ plot. Let’s consider this a stretched pocket in time so Regina and co will be sleeping in the forest disregarding everything that happened after the end of the second episode of the blasted seventh season.   
PS: It’s been a couple of weeks since I wrote a one shot of these two. I apologize if I sound rusty xd

The fire crackled as it protested under Regina’s stare and the brunette took a shivering breath as she blinked away; the whispering woods offering nothing but shadows that danced and swayed outside the protecting circle the bonfire created. A few feet away from her, soundly asleep, two figures snored, and her gaze fell into the youngest one; a soft smile curling her lips as she did so.

It had been too long since she had had the opportunity to see Henry sleep; far too long for her brain to superimpose the image of the young man who had his back turned to her to the one of the boy, the teen truly, that she had seen ride away from her in a motorbike that she would have loved to not have seen him on it ever. She still tried, however, as the fingers of her right hand kept on playing with the grass blades she had used to cast the barrier that -as an almost silver thread- encircled the three of them as they waited for the sun to rise.

The image came to her, but it was blurry, and she let her eyelids fall as she attempted to quiet her breathing; ears perked in an almost subconscious way. It had been also too long since she had last slept in the middle of nowhere after all; her body, her magic, felt sluggish and changed and she hated the prickling sensation of it, of the sparks that jumped inside her bloodstream with a more weak pull than the one she had grown accustomed to feel back at Storybrooke.

Opening her eyes once more, she casted a last look to Henry before jumping to the second figure; the profile of a man she had grown to despise creating a ripple sensation within her chest that made her swallow before she returned back to her fire; the one she had promised to tend to as her guard passed. Guard that she knew was a simple white lie for everyone involved as it was not needed. Not with the magic she had used.

Curling her fingers around the grass before smoothening it once again, Regina let her mind wander once more to greens and dirty white; the same shade the purple on her kept on calling in a silent scream. It was a stupid reaction, she knew as much, yet her magic, her power, kept the call; as if waiting, expecting.

She had made her peace with the way she had glanced at Emma a few hours ago; the realization that had hit her the moment Emma had looked at her not a new one but still as bitter and deadly as the first time she had stared at the woman only to realize she was about to commit what had, probably, become the most painful best move on her entire life. Turning her hands into fists, Regina let the magic engulf her; the push of it biting the inner side of her wrists a reminder of the way her heart kept on pumping.

Emma had decided way before she had been standing in front of that portal; pretending otherwise was a disservice to the way Regina’s heart had ached the second she had seen the ring on her hand, the second Emma had knocked on her door with a tremulous smile -the kind of one she had started to use whenever Regina was around after Henry had left- and words had flowed out of her, falling like lead on top of her already tired heartstrings.

_I’m pregnant._

It still hurt. Hurt in the way that Regina could already tell it would keep on hurting for a long while and, maybe precisely for that, she kept herself awake: a punishment to her mind she wasn’t entirely sure it would help. Not with her magic calling for the one she had grown so used to search for whenever a battle was about to happen; its presence calming, soft and warm.

It was maybe that, the need for it, what made her blind and deaf to the woods around her even after she had promised herself a constant vigilance around trees and secrets that were similar but not the same as the ones she still could imagine whenever she thought to the forest she had grown up in. It didn’t matter, of course, because the second she blinked owlishly as she pushed away the memory of the arc her own neck had created as she nodded; surface calm, insides in disarray, she felt a soft response to the continuous call her magic kept on making.

It was tenuous, dampened by the magic protection, but it was there; an echo that embedded itself onto her much more quicker than anything else; from the scent of the still-burning wood to the already damp smell the ground around her had.

However, she still felt her lips parting as she glanced up, towards the clearing in where she still could picture the residual specs of a portal being opened and closed in a whooshing movement that made the lower branches of the trees around them quiver.

Muscles taut, she stood and glared at the corner of the woods that now grew painfully still, darkness seeming to grow for a moment before something resembling a flashlight cut through them; scattering dots that danced minutely before the flashlight moved briskly towards them; the sound of footsteps reaching as Regina swallowed; sadness being overtaken by worry.

Worry that fell flat before she could raise her hand, fire transferring from the bonfire to dance between her fingers before she could ask for help.

Because, there, at the other side of the protective barrier, stood Emma with wild eyes and wilder blonde hair; lips devoid of any color and eyes far too green and glinting.

She couldn’t see them; Regina intellectually knew as much as the barrier resembled the one Storybrooke still had yet she took a step back as if calling forth the shadows she now wished would envelop her. They didn’t, of course, and Emma narrowed her eyes at where she was, prying from her side of the woods; the ones in where darkness kept on dancing, casting silver-hued shimmers as the inherent magic from the soil found the one the blonde kept close to her own heart.

“Regina?”

The call was a soft one; a whisper and Regina thought that if she remained mute for the right amount of time Emma’s own call to her magic -the one that had transformed from forlorn to something that burnt through her- could diminish enough for the younger woman to, maybe, think she had been wrong.

However, she felt her lips part once more, tongue wetting them, as she kept on staring at Emma’s face, dimly illuminated by a fire the blonde couldn’t see. She had grown so accustomed to the pale version the woman had crafted around her that seeing her in the middle of the woods was a jarring reminder of the image Regina kept on protecting: like a picture already starting to crease. Changes, however, were unmistakable; from the leather jacket to the jeans and boots, from the hilt of a sword on her right side to the shade of a gun on her left, attached to a belt in where the marks of a badge could still be seen if she focused enough.

And, she realized with a start, from the way her shoulders were set; locked in place and under enough light for her to see the shape of a backpack strapped to her, there was something else there: a decision about to be made.

It was that detail, she would later say, the one that made her lower her hand as she took a step towards the edge of the barrier, hands already prickling as she considered what would be for the best; to pull the woman within the barrier or walk outside just enough for her to truly see her.

It could be a trap -her mind insinuated with that residue of her mother’s snarl she still hadn’t eradicated no matter how much time it passed. An image or glamour the woods could be using on her. A trace, she retorted to it, throat dry and lungs filling themselves with Emma’s scent; ozone tickling her nostrils, was impossible to duplicate. The woman she had in front of her was Emma. Of that she was sure.

And, as soon as her brain settled on it; her muscles did too.

Taking the final few steps between the blonde and herself, Regina stood in front of the younger woman; the green eyes changing to dirty white the second her magic was close enough for the blonde’s to sense it.

“I know you are here.” The whisper was not a plead, but Regina still caved to it as she reached through the barrier and took a step outside, the power letting her cross as it opened and closed at her back.

“Then why are **you** here?”

It came out of her with a bite she hadn’t expected herself to have and she almost sighed as Emma winced; taking a step back as soon as she appeared in front of her, flashlight falling to the side as she did so, one hand dangling, as if she had intended to be the one who reached for her.

Who sought her out.

Ultimately, Emma answered with a still low voice. The kind of one she would get when they had been searching for the author; much more intimate than anything else they had shared during those nights.

“I made a mistake.”

Regina wanted to scoff at that, to keep on the pretense of the almost anger she wish she could tap into with the easiness she had done once. It didn’t surprise her that Emma could read her posture, though, that Emma knew before she even did she had needed to hear such a thing. Emma had always known how to see between the cracks after all. Even when she had liked to pretend she didn’t.

Shoulders rolling and back arching, Regina peered into Emma’s eyes as her eyes grew accustomed to the change in lighting, the coldness of the woods tracing goosebumps she fought against.

“What do you mean?”

They weren’t supposed to be talking about this. Regina knew as much. Not when Emma was there after she had crossed away, but she didn’t stop the question from falling. They had always been like that after all.

Running a hand to her hair, Emma pointed towards Regina’s back with the flashlight hitting the brunette’s eyes for less than a second to where the campsite was even if neither of them could see it from their side. Regina didn’t blink but she pressed her lips together, unsure.

“I shouldn’t have left.”

Regina wanted to believe she had finally fallen asleep; that this was a simple last laugh her mind was having at her expense. It would hurt, she surmised, when she would get awoken by Henry with Emma gone and a conversation that would never happen an aftertaste on her throat. Another part of her, however, knew that this was true.

Yet she couldn’t let that one win. Because it would mean that, for a reason she still couldn’t understand, Emma was truly here and, apparently, ready to stay.

“Emma…” She began but left the name hanging around them, the doubt halting her as much as Emma’s shake of her head.

“I knew it the second I crossed.” The younger woman began, voice low but strong and, as she lowered her chin, Regina could see the truth on her words. “I wanted… I didn’t know. I only knew that I needed to come back.”

“Why?”

It was the closest Regina felt like being able to say to a much more difficult conversation. The one that had changed the day she had been told Emma was going to give birth at some point in the future. The one that had ended the moment Regina had finally broken and wished aloud for Emma to see what she saw when she looked at her; a potential, a gorgeous, beautiful potential of something else, something more.

It had frozen her in place as soon as the words had been out, fingers already closing on Emma’s shoulders and the ghost of a biting kiss bleeding against her tongue.

Emma hadn’t said a thing; she had kissed her as hard, however, leaving after it with fire on her eyes and words hanging around them in even thicker ink lines than before.

So now, as the “why” echoed around them, Regina settled for the many possible paths she would be forced to face; because Emma was there, in front of her, and she wanted to ask her to stay even if she had had sworn she was okay with seeing her leave.

“Regina.”

It came as an exasperated mutter and the brunette almost laughed at that, stopping herself as she was brought back to Emma’s eyes, to Emma’s hands as the blonde rose the two of them; flashlight hitting the highest part of the trees. There, where Regina had grown accustomed seeing two rings, nothing but fair skin awaited.

“I can’t leave my family.” There, a tremble, a hiccup, and Regina ached as she crossed her arms and dipped her fingers into the skin of her ribs, one hand falling to her own stomach, keeping the magic at bay. Magic that was already swirling, entwining itself with another.

_I can’t leave you._

“I thought you had decided…” She was stopped once more. Not by a no but by a sigh and she glowered at it.

“I kept taking the coward’s route.” Self-deprecating smile shining on her teeth, Emma shrugged, nervousness rolling off her features as she lowered her hands once more, light pooling at her feet. “I knew as much when the portal closed. I made a promise…”

And there it was yet again, the words Regina had already heard a dozen times; the ones that were said as apologies, the ones she felt she would love to destroy.

“One you already fulfilled.”

“We both know that’s not true.”

It was true, however: Emma had brought happiness, had battled for them again and again, tightening ropes made of promises and expectations so strongly around her Regina wished she would be able to burn the rope without destroying her in the process.

Or maybe it was, indeed, a lie. A lie the two of them had fed as Regina had kept on glancing at Emma: falling in love with her in the process until there was very little of that animadversion left, the one she had wished to be able to experience the moment Emma had smiled at her in her vault with nothing but coldness surrounding the two of them.

The one she had rejected after all. Because she was proud, she was stubborn, and it didn’t matter how many sides of her split away from the version of what she had built within her core.

“You are pregnant.” It was weak; stupid but she still tightened the muscles on her jaws.

If this wasn’t a dream, her mind said, if Emma was indeed in front of her and watching her walk away once more would hurt more, pain her more, than the first time it had happened. She would not let that happen; not if she dared to consider the ludicrous possibility of Emma staying, with them, _with her_. Not when what the blonde was throwing away was, aside from Regina’s personal feelings regarding it, a much easier option than the one she seemed about to make.

Eyes sharpening, Emma nodded at it before her features softened, hands reaching as the barrier hummed at Regina’s back; the resulting spark one that the brunette gulp; about to give in.

“I won’t leave tomorrow.”

It wasn’t an answer to Regina’s words, but it was still a response to a fear so deeply settled Regina felt as if her spine was being ripped out of her; her bones malleable as she was the one who, this time around, was who moved forward, breath hitching.

“And the day after that?”

It wasn’t a perfect situation; Emma was still, somewhat, running and the two of them knew as much. But, Regina thought, wasn’t it time for her to be selfish once more? For a second, a quarter of a moment so brief she felt as if she was about to fall?

The whisper that answered that was enough for her to nod.

“I won’t.”

“They will ask questions.”

“Let them.”

And so, as the woods shivered around them and two sets of eyes glanced at each other from within the barrier, unseen by the two women who stared at each other with questions mounting inside chests and hearts, Regina let herself resume a conversation that had been stopped in the foyer of the mansion that wasn’t her home anymore, a kiss deepening as Emma promised in slowly increasing staccato, that she would not run away.

(And when the day came the blonde wrapped her hand around Regina’s in a tentative move so slow the two of them decided to pretend it wasn’t there and stayed.)


End file.
